Mumbai: The Economic Offences Wing (EOW) of the Mumbai Police on Saturday arrested builder Pujit Aggarwal in connection with the Rs. 3 crore cheating case filed against him by the IDBI Bank, the details of which were first reported in The Hindu .
Aggarwal was first arrested by the Azad Maidan police in a Rs. 2.50 crore cheating case on September 8, and later by the EOW on September 22 in connection with a financial fraud case of Rs. 52 crore.
The EOW had sought the court’s permission to arrest him in the case registered with them by the IDBI Bank, and on Thursday, the court had granted the EOW permission to arrest him.
“We arrested Aggarwal on Friday and produced him in court on Saturday. He was remanded in our custody till October 13,” an EOW officer said.
The Hindu , in its October 1 edition, reported how the IDBI had filed a complaint with the MIDC police against Aggarwal in 2013, which was later taken over by the EOW.
The bank, in its complaint, has alleged that one Amitabh Parekh had in 2005 taken a Rs. 3 crore loan to buy three flats in Orbit Heights, Aggarwal’s project in Nana Chowk. After the loan was approved, the IDBI transferred Rs. 3 crore to Orbit Corporation’s account and Mr. Parekh issued post-dated cheques to repay the amount.
When Mr. Parekh’s cheques started bouncing in 2013, the bank made inquiries and learned that he had passed away. A team from the bank’s retail recovery branch visited the three flats for which Mr. Parekh had taken the loan. The team found three completely different people staying in the flats, after which the bank approached the police. As the loan was obtained in Mr. Parekh’s name, he was posthumously named as an accused in the FIR.
The EOW officer said, “We are still investigating whether Mr. Parekh knowingly participated in the fraud. We will be interrogating Aggarwal about this and will be making inquiries with Mr. Parekh’s family. Orbit’s bank statements are being examined to find out where Aggarwal spent the Rs. 3 crore that he received from the IDBI. The residents of the three flats may be called in for inquiries to find out more about their transaction with Aggarwal.”
